Donnie Baseball or Joltin' Joe Girardi-O?

The New York Daily News and Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman reported today that Joe Girardi will be the next Yankee manager.

I don't buy it.

I think it will be Don Mattingly. And more than that, I think it should be Mattingly. Or at least, shouldn't be Girardi.

The Daily News had this lovely little chart today with the pros and cons for each managerial candidate -- Girardi, Mattingly and Tony Pena, who, let's face it, was there just to fulfill the MLB requirement that you speak to a minority. (After Pena interviewed, the headline on the back of the New York Post should have been: "The Token Has Spoken.")

Anyway, so here's this chart that was in the Daily News today:



I don't think you can disagree with the idea that, when it comes to the '08 Yankees, the most important category out of those four is "handling of pitching staff." Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy are three terrific young arms, and Chien-Ming Wang has to get straightened out. After 12 years of watching Torre falling asleep in the dugout, "Game strategy/decision-making" is obviously not a priority with this team. I don't think either "Communication with players" or "Relationship with front office" will be a problem with either guy.

So, if I was advising the Yankees, my priority would be getting a guy who knows how to handle a pitching staff. And, according to the Daily News article, that's one of Brian Cashman's top priorities, too. Good, so we're all on the same page.

But why does Girardi get four checkmarks for handling the pitching staff? "Because he used to be a catcher, and catchers know how to handle pitchers." Really? Joe Torre used to be a catcher, how were his pitcher handling skills?

I have three reasons why Girardi shouldn't get any positive marks for handling the pitching staff: Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez and Dontrelle Willis.

Johnson was probably the reason Girardi got fired. Girardi brought Johnson back into a game after an 82-minute rain delay and right after that, he hurt his arm. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria blamed the injury on Johnson pitching after the rain delay. Is he right? Who knows. But if Girardi does the same thing to Joba or Hughes and he gets hurt, will we still be patting him on the back for his great handling of a pitching staff?

And then there's Sanchez. Marlins fans blamed Girardi for Sanchez's injury as well. Sanchez threw 76.1 innings in Single A in 2004, 136 innings between Single A and Double-A in '2005, and then 200 innings between Double-A and the majors in 2006. That includes 114.1 innings in the majors in '06, including six starts in September totaling 43 innings, including two complete games (one of them a no-hitter), and two starts after hurting his hand trying to barehand a comebacker. More evidence of Joe's careful use of young pitching talent?

I really can't fault Girardi for riding Sanchez and Johnson through July and August, as they were realistically in the Wild Card hunt. But by mid-September they were basically out of it.

As for Dontrelle, I don't know what's wrong with this guy. And apparently Girardi doesn't either.


YEAR ERA WHIP K/9 BB/9 K:BB HR/9 IP
2003 3.30 1.28 7.9 3.2 2.4 0.7 160.2
2004 4.02 1.38 6.3 2.8 2.3 0.9 197.0
2005 2.63 1.13 6.5 2.1 3.1 0.4 236.1
2006 3.87 1.42 6.4 3.3 1.9 0.8 223.1
2007 5.17 1.60 6.4 3.8 1.7 1.3 205.1


It doesn't look to me like Girardi, in '06, figured out the key to Dontrelle. Maybe '04 and '06 represent his true ability level and '03 and '05 are the upper limit on his ability. But if Girardi is so good with pitchers, shouldn't he be getting those upper limit results?

Again, where's the evidence Joe has a knack for working with pitchers?

Given his track record, does Girardi really deserve four out of five checks for pitching staff?

And if Girardi isn't good at handling pitchers, what's the point?

This sounds crazy but... I think the Royals might know what they're doing!

Until a man reaches, say, 35, we all hide this sneaking suspicion that we have some undiscovered talent for baseball.

For those of us who never picked up a glove or bat after our Little League days were over, we wonder: What would have happened if we had stuck with it? Maybe we could hit triple digits on a radar gun, or pick up the "red dot" of a slider. It's not like those are abilities that you find a use for in every day life. How would we know if we had them?

Or, even if we had played a little high school or even college ball, you can still convince yourself it'd all be different with just one little change somewhere. A coach makes a slight adjustment to your swing and suddenly you're Rod Carew. Or they draft you as an emergency reliever during a blow-out and see the erratic arm you displayed in outfield is a naturally sinking fastball when you're on the mound. Someone pushes you a little bit harder or not quite as much or whatever, and just like that, you would've been in Yankee Stadium.

It's a nice fantasy, until you reach the age when you can't get out of bed without everything hurting, and then you have to face the fact that, even if you were blessed with some hidden ability, it will remain buried somewhere between your pot belly and your love handles.

At that point, you stop fantasizing that you could be a professional baseball player. And then you begin fantasizing that you could run a professional baseball team.

Naturally, we'd all love to marry Jennifer Steinbrenner and take over the Yankees, but even in a fantasy, you have to be a little realistic. But hey, how about the Devil Rays? The Pirates? The Royals? Do the guys running those teams really know more about baseball than you or I? Probably -- not that you'd know it from the results.

So let's fantasize. Let's pretend the owner of one of those hopeless, hapless teams reads your blog and says, "You think you're so smart, young man? You can run my team. Good luck."

What would you do? And you can't just say you'd "sign Alex Rodriguez" or "trade some prospects for Brandon Webb." We're trying to be realistic here. A-Rod? You're the general manager of a small-market team with a tight-fisted owner. Webb? Sorry, you can't use the Jedi Mind Trick on your fellow GMs.

OK, so... how do you turn around a terrible franchise -- without spending a lot of money -- before your owner loses confidence and fires you?

I can think of two ways to do it. The first method, the conventional strategy, is to promote everybody from your farm system and hope for the best. Yes, we'll lose a lot of games at first, and along the way probably burn out a few guys who weren't really ready for The Show. But if we get lucky, maybe by the end of the second or third year, we'll have the core of a decent team, and then -- maybe -- we can convince the owner to splurge on some free agents and make a run at a pennant or two before we have to start over.

The advantage here is that it's safe. If it doesn't work, it's not your fault -- it's because your owner is too cheap, your farm system is too weak, your division is too good. You get fired after three or four years because you never made it to .500, but even so, you'll be credited with "developing" the half-dozen or so players who pan out as genuine Major Leaguers, even an All-Star or two. And people will say, "If only he had some payroll to work with, he'd be a good general manager." And you get another job in another front office.

But if it works, you're a genius -- you rebuilt a franchise from the ground up!

The first year you lose 100 games, but the next year you shock everybody and win 80. Your owner opens his wallet and says go get some free agents. Year 3, you almost win the Wild Card! And then, finally, the fourth year, it all comes together, the home-grown talent and high-priced free agents, you win the World Series! You quit and get hired by a real team, and the next sucker inherits a team about to lose all its young players to arbitration and saddled with all the overpriced contracts you signed the year before.

The second method, the Moneyball strategy, is to identify and sign undervalued players. The advantage, provided you're good at the identifying part, is that you can be reasonably competitive right away.

But remember, despite what John Sterling thinks, Moneyball is not a 200-page lecture on the importance of on-base percentage at the expense of all other considerations. Moneyball is about spotting undervalued commodities. And now that everybody is down with O-B-P (yeah you know me!), you have to dig a little deeper to identify guys who are cheap but good: Washed-up All-Stars who can still contribute in platoon roles or off the bench; catchers and middle infielders who can no longer field, but can still hit; guys coming off scary injuries or struggling with weight problems. Sign former prospects who never made it and guys you never heard of who lit up the Mexican League or Frontier League. Offer low-ball one-year contracts to the headcases, the malcontents and the cancers in the clubhouse and tell them it's their big chance to shove it to the other guys. Use the Rule 5 draft wisely -- while everyone else is fighting over the pitchers with incredible stuff but can't throw strikes, claim low-cost solutions for your bullpen and bench. And promote from within, but carefully, making sure no one arrives as a savior or is thrown in as cannon fodder.

The problem with this strategy is, at least at first, you will look like an idiot. Nobody else wanted those guys for a reason. Your first deal is to give up a no-name minor leaguer for Michael Barrett and cash, and on ESPN they make jokes about your pitchers needing to take boxing lessons in case he wants to fight them in the dugout. You sign Jon Lieber to a bargain-basement one-year contract, and some a-hole blogger like me opines maybe you didn't know he missed half the season with an injury. You buy Victor Rodriguez from the Newark Bears and sports talk radio callers say, "Real teams get A-Rod -- we get V-Rod!" You claim Tomokazu Ohka off the scrap heap and convert him to a reliever, and sportswriters ask why you think a guy who can't get people out at the beginning of a game will be able to get them out at the end.

If it doesn't work out -- let's say Barrett punches out Lieber, causing him to miss the rest of the season, while the only guy Ohka can get out is V-Rod -- and you've just proven that all those people are smarter than you. Instead of making it to your third or fourth season, you get fired midway through your second year. And executives in other front offices won't even look at your resume. You can't even apply for a job outside of baseball without some human resources guy saying, "Hey, you're that guy who wasted all that money on Joey Eischen, right?" Well, actually, it was a league-minimum contract and- "Joey Eischen! What the hell were you thinking?"

And even if at first it does work out? It may not look like a success to the outside world. Remember, you're trying to be rebuild a franchise -- the goal is to be competitive for the next decade, not just this year -- and that may mean taking one step back in order to take two forward. Not everyone will like that.

Let's say a couple of the veterans on short-term contracts make good: At the end of June, Barrett hasn't punched anybody and is hitting .300 with an .800 OPS; you trade him for a top catching prospect and now they're howling on sports talk radio. "Our only good hitter and he trades him for some minor leaguer!" Ohka is pitching lights out in the middle innings, and Peter Gammons wonders why you won't use him to replace a struggling rookie in the rotation. "What's the point of having a good reliever if you never have a lead?" All the sportswriters in your town want you to call up some kid who is crushing the ball in Double-A, but you won't do it after hearing he's afraid to leave his hotel room on road trips. "Why won't they promote this guy and let him get some experience?"

So obviously, while the second strategy is a lot riskier, I think it's the right way to go. And more and more, I'm convinced it's what the Royals are doing.

Despite having finished last in the A.L. Central for the fourth straight year, and despite posting just one winning record (83-79 in 2003) since the strike-shortened '94 season -- hell, they haven't been to the post-season since winning the World Series in '85 -- I think GM Dayton Moore is moving the Royals in the right direction. They didn't panic when Alex Gordon was hitting .185 after his first two months in the majors; he hit .275 the rest of the way. They didn't rush good-hit, no-field prospect Billy Butler to the majors and force him into the outfield; instead, they waited for Mike Sweeney's inevitable injury so he could ease in as a DH. They took cheap fliers on no-names like Joakim Soria and has-beens like Brandon Duckworth. They signed Octavio Dotel, let him pick up some saves and then shipped him off to the Braves. They turned Ambiorix Burgos into Brian Bannister and J.P. Howell into Joey Gathright. I thought signing Gil Meche was insanity and the guy posts a 3.67 ERA and 1.296 WHIP.

I really like that he hired former Yankee minor league manager Trey Hillman. I don't know much about Hillman, but I'm sure, after 12 years as a manager from the New York Penn League to Triple A, he knows how to handle young players. He also led the Nippon Ham Fighters to the playoffs in three out of his five seasons and won the Japan Series last year.

So, as I said, I don't know much about Hillman. Why, then, do I think he's a smart hire? Because he's not Larry Bowa or Lee Mazzilli or any of the other re-treads they could have hired. He's not the safe choice. They could have hired Jamie Quirk (or any other random Royal from the mid-70s to mid-80s) and made a lot of people in Kansas City happy, and if it didn't work out, no one would blame Moore. Instead, he went out and found a smart guy who is liked by smart people.

Ordinarily, as a Yankee fan, I wouldn't give a shit either way about what the Royals are doing. It's not that I hate them; it's just been about 20 years since I've had to worry about them. (To quote Scrubs, "I don't hate you. I nothing you.") So, speaking as an objective observer, I think they're making the right moves and heading in the right direction. Rebuilding the right way isn't easy -- it's a long, slow, painful process. But I think they're doing it right. Next year they might be flirting with .500; the year after that, maybe even a Central Division title. If they pull it off, remember you read it here first.

If they don't... blame Dayton Moore. What an idiot!

Welcome to the 2007 New York Jets

Top 10 things overheard while watching the Jets this season:

10. "That pass was woefully underthrown." (Woefully Underthrown is also the subtitle fo the 2007 NFL films Jets video)

9. "Are there 5 teams in the NFL with worse quarterbacks than Chad Pennington?"

8."Vinny Testaverde won a game in the NFL today, how did we not resign him?"

7. "Truly terrible... that pass was truly terrible"

6. "Good f-ing G-d he is going to get Coles and Cotchery killed before this game is over."

5. "Mangenious? More like Mangina."

4. "How do they NOT start Kellen Clemens next week?" (repeated at the end of every game)

3. "Doesn't matter if we get the first overall pick. This is the Jets, you know whoever they pick is going to suck."

2. "Pennington's mind is writing checks his arm can't cash"

1. "Kind of makes you miss Ken O'Brien"

OK, that didn't work

Four months 'til pitchers and catchers report!

That sucked. Chien-Ming Wang gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and couldn't get an out in the second inning, forcing a switch to Mike Mussina. And while Moose wasn't great (2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB in 4.2 IP, plus he allowed two of Wang's inherited runners to score), he kept the score reasonable. The final score, 6-4, makes it look like it was a nailbiter, but it really wasn't. It was a frustrating, slow, agonizing game. The Yankees had 12 hits, including three home runs and a double, plus 3 walks, but left 10 men on base. Bleh.

Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 with an RBI, but killed us in the bottom of the 6th, grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. The Yankees had runners on the corners and one out; just a fly ball would've made it a three-run game with three innings yet to play. Alex Rodriguez also went 2-for-5 with an RBI (a solo home run in the 7th), but he also came up empty in a big spot, striking out with two on and one out in the bottom of the 1st.

The Yankees teased you a little bit in the bottom of the 9th, as the Indians went to Joe Borowski. After Jeter popped out, Bobby Abreu hit a shot into the upper deck to make it 6-4. "A bloop and a blast" as John Sterling says, incessantly. But no bloops were to be had. A-Rod flew out to right, and then it all came down to Jorge Posada, who in any other year would be every Yankee fan's MVP candidate. Posada drove one down the right field line and Sterling gave us a classic "It is high! It is far! It is... foul!" Then Posada struck out swinging to end it.

Inning over... game over... American League Division Series over... the Indians win, the Indians win.

There's plenty of blame to go around. The list is shorter of guys you can't blame: Robinson Cano (.333, 1.175 OPS), Johnny Damon (.278, .927) and Bobby Abreu (.267, .886), and Andy Pettitte (0 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 K in 6.1 IP), Phil Hughes (1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 6 K in 5.2 IP) and Mariano Rivera (0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 4.2 IP). You can add Moose in there if you want. Joba Chamberlain has ugly numbers (2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 4 K in 3.2 IP) but he deserves a pass as all the damage happened in the freakish bug bowl of Game 2 and in his second inning in Game 3, when the game was already won.

So, who's the goat? The two obvious candidates, as always, are A-Rod and Torre.

Blame A-Rod! He didn't come through in the clutch in a couple big spots. But his overall line isn't bad (.267, .820), and considering how much worse some of the other hitters are, it's a real stretch to blame him. Yankee haters always have something to say about Rodriguez -- no matter what he does, they try to talk about him. If he has a horrible night, they kill A-Rod; if he has a great night, they kill Yankee fans for not loving A-Rod enough. But for this particular series anyway, there's just not that much to say. He got some hits, and he made some outs. He's not the story, but some people will try to make him the story anyway.

The rest of the lineup? The Yankees collectively hit .228 and stranded all those runners on base, so let's blame the batters. But which one? Melky Cabrera hit just .188 but he did have the only big hit against Fausto Carmona, and he was great in the field. Matsui had only 2 hits in 11 at-bats, but he also drew 5 walks, so who's going to fault a .438 OBP. Doug Mientkiewicz went 0-for-6 but if you're relying on Minky for offense, you're doomed. Jason Giambi only had 1 hit, but he also had just 4 ABs.

No, if you're going to blame a batter, it's got to be Jeter or Posada. After having great regular seasons, each was really awful in the playoffs. Jeter went 3-for-17 with 3 GIDPs and probably should have been charged with an error in Game 3, but the Yankees won that game anyway. Posada went 2-for-15 and was charged with one passed ball and probably deserved another that went down as a wild pitch to Joba. But you might have a hard time finding a Yankee fan willing to pin anything on either Derek or Georgie, who are not just True Yankees, but were two-thirds of the foundation of the 1996-2001 dynasty.

Blame Torre! Sure, why not? Maybe he could have pulled Wang earlier in Game 1, after the 4th inning, when the Yankees were down 4-3 and had just missed an opportunity to regain the lead (bases loaded, one out, no runs). Maybe he could have delayed Game 2 long enough for the bugs to disperse, or switch to a less tasty reliever. Or I can be a total hypocrite and say he was wrong for starting Wang in Game 4. Hey, I didn't want to bring him back last year so I'm certainly not advocating he be brought back for next year, but in this series, I don't think you can blame Torre.

And how can you fault Torre for how he handled Wang, but not Wang himself? I'm not sure if he's hurt or wore down or if the Indians just had his number, but Wang looked flat-out awful out there. Hell, the Yankee team ERA with Wang was 5.89, without him was 3.48. The Indians team ERA in the series was 3.41. Wang's pre- and post-All-Star break numbers suggest something happened over the second half (3.36 ERA, 1.20 WHIP vs 4.07 ERA, 1.40 WHIP). But again, Wang, as a True Yankee, might not catch a lot of flak. You can try to blame Roger Clemens (3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K in 2.1 IP), but the Yankees won that game anyway. Luis Vizcaino blew Game 2, but how do you blame him and not Joba? Ross Ohlendorff coughed up some big runs in Game 1, but again, you can't blame him but not Wang.

The bottom line: Ah, what the fuck. Blame A-Rod and Torre anyway. They won't be here next year.

Well, I think this is good news...

Joe Torre announced after last night's win that today's starter would be Chien-Ming Wang on three days' rest and not Mike Mussina. If we get to a Game 5, Andy Pettitte will be able to pitch on full rest (because of the day off tomorrow).

Torre was criticized last year for not trying this during the Detroit series. In Game 1, Wang was good but not great -- he gave up 3 runs on 8 hits and a walk -- but the Yankees won, 8-4.

Four days later, the Yankees were down 2 games to 1 and at Comerica Park, and there was talk of bringing back Wang on three days' rest. Wang had thrown 93 pitches in 6.2 innings, so it wasn't out of the question that he could come back. Once again, there would be a travel day between Games 4 and 5, so the Game 2 starter -- Mussina, coincidentally -- would be available on the normal four days rest to pitch the final game, if the Yankees got there.

Only Joe knows why, but this was dismissed as a possibility and instead we relied on the trusty arm of Jaret Wright to carry us through Game 4. Nice. Wright was pounded for 4 runs on 5 hits (2 home runs) in just 2.2 innings, and that's all she wrote.

Torre and his defenders (particularly Suzyn Waldman) are big on the "but then who" argument whenever you talk about doing anything unJoe-like. When the Yankees lose a tie game on the road after he trots out Ron Villone to pitch the bottom of the 9th, if you ask Joe, hey, maybe Mariano Rivera could have pitched there, he'll ask: "But then who pitches the bottom of the 10th?" Huh. Well, now that you mention it, yeah, Villone solved that problem for us by blowing the game in the bottom of the 9th.

Of course he can't admit it, but I'm thinking last year Torre was already thinking about the next series, which of course you can never do. He figured, "I can use Wang in Game 4 and Mussina in Game 5, but then who pitches Game 1?" So he figured he'd patch through Game 4 with Wright and Cory Lidle, and that went as well as could be expected.

The difference is, this post-season, Torre is managing with a gun to his head -- literally, if they take my advice -- and that's why he was so quick to pull Roger Clemens, why he burned up Joba Chamberlain for 2 innings, why he used Mariano Rivera with a 4-run lead, why he benched Mussina today for Wang. He's managing like a guy who understands that, in an elimination game, you don't have to worry about tomorrow until you get there. Survive and move on, as they say in the NCAAs.

Despite the fact that Wang got pounded by the Indians in Game 1, I'm confident we'll get a better performance this time. There's that whole "tired is better for sinkerballers" argument, which, who knows if it's true or not. Wang hasn't pitched on three days' rest this year (or last year), so it's hard to reasonably make that argument.

But more importantly, Wang was a lot better at home (10-4, 2.75 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) than on the road (9-3, 4.91, 1.50 WHIP), so I'd rather start him on short rest at Yankee Stadium tonight. And it also works for Game 5 -- Pettitte, somewhat surprisingly for a lefty, is actually slightly worse at Yankee Stadium (8-4, 4.17, 1.44) than on the road (7-5, 3.95, 1.41).

This makes sense all around. So much so, that I'm surprised Joe thought of it. The barrel of a .45 pressed firmly against his temple may have had something to do with it.

See what a little motivation can do?

One thing to watch out for -- Joe loves to prove to his guys that they're still "his guys." If Wang can't get us to the 7th inning, expect to see Mussina.

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat

As one of those rare Yankee/Packer fan hybrids -- what can I say, I like teams that won a lot before I was born -- it was a mixed night for me.

The Yankees won, of course, to stave off elimination and play at least one more game in 2007. That was good.

The Packers, of course, blew a 10-point lead to lose to the hated Bears to ruin their perfect season.

I know a guy from Philadelphia, so naturally he is both a Phillies fan and an Eagles fan. Last Monday, I asked him if he was up (from the Phillies making the post-season) or down (from the Eagles losing to the Giants).

He thought about it for a little bit, then started trying to rationalize that he was up, but then he just sighed. "Goddamn it! Couldn't they have given me just one day to enjoy the moment?!"

I know a little better now where he was coming from, but I'm up, I'm up. If you told me in July that the Packers would be 4-1 and the Yankees would be in the post-season, I'd be a happy camper.

The Packers lost the type of game they'd been winning the first four games of the season. All the lucky breaks they got to get to 4-0 were here tonight -- for the Bears. Charles Woodson fumbles a punt and it bounces right into the hands of the punter, of all people, and he grabs it just before he slides out of bounds. Brett Favre does some kind of crazy no-look pass and throws it right into the arms of Brian Urlacher. The Bears go up on a touchdown pass that is caught out of bounds, but the officials rule it a push-out and, for god knows why, that's not a reviewable play. And speaking of reviewable plays, Mike McCarthy throws the red flag to challenge a spot, wins the challenge... or not. The announcers never seemed to figure this out. All I know is the officials picked up the ball and moved it back, which sounds like you won the challenge, right? But they didn't move it back far enough for it not to be a first down, so apparently he lost the challenge. In other words, yes, we made a mistake, but no, we didn't.

And then on top of the five turnovers, all those penalties -- 93 yards in penalties, and at killer times too. The Packers racked up 150 more yards of offense, but all for naught.

But at the end of the game, if Donald Driver jumps an inch higher, it's all tied up.

Yeah, so we could be 5-0, but then we could have just as easily lost the Eagles game or even the Giants game, and be 2-3. We're a good but not great team -- a better team than the Bears, but not tonight. Next week we're home against a 3-1 Redskins team that just beat the holy hell out of the Lions. We'll see which was the fluke, the first four or the last one.

As for the Yankees, win tomorrow and send the series back to Cleveland -- where the forecast for Wednesday night is high 50s and rain, not exactly good conditions for midges. Win tomorrow and try again with Chien-Ming Wang against C.C. Sabathia. Hopefully Wang will figure out whatever was wrong with him in Game 1, and hopefully the Yankee batters can figure out why they couldn't put away Sabathia, a guy we had on the ropes more than Rocky Balboa against Clubber Lang.



But unfortunately it was Rocky/Clubber II. Just like Clubber we kept going for the big knock-out punch but swinging and missing.

Before we can start thinking about Wednesday, we have to win tomorrow, and even with Paul Byrd pitching, it won't be easy. We won't have Phil Hughes (3.2 innings, 63 pitches) or Joba Chamberlain (2.0 innings, 38 pitches), which means the bullpen is going to be short-handed tomorrow night if Mike Mussina can't get us through the 6th inning.

Yes, you could say we needed to win tonight to get to tomorrow, but what the fuck, Joe Torre? You had a 5-run lead, why did you send Joba back out there to pitch the 8th? You don't think that was a good time to play sports psychologist with Kyle Farnsworth? Maybe let Russ Ohlendorf get back on the horse after getting slapped around in Game 1? Oh, no, let's burn up Joba. More great work from one of the winningest managers in MLB history.

Of course, Joe has a lot more confidence in Moose than I do, because Joe just loves his veterans. Johnny Damon after the game tonight was asked if it mattered that Torre's job was supposedly on the line tonight and he said something along the lines of, "We'll do anything for Joe." Hey, how about win some games in May and June, Johnny? Those games counted too, you know.

Well, obviously there's only one thing for Big Stein to do before tomorrow's game: Threaten to fire Joe again. Or, better yet, have a sniper in the owner's box with orders to shoot Torre in the head if the Yankees lose. Obviously it's the only way to motivate these guys. Win the game, or your beloved manager dies.

Can't you just picture Joe sitting there with the red dot of a laser sight bouncing over his forehead? Actually, he'd probably have his usual hang-dog look, staring at the ground, mumbling to himself and pounding down the green tea.

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